The Reincarnate
by asd'viers.dfga
Summary: You've become a virus that eaten up it's host. "So much potential," but your greed, self-importance, and your arrogance; you piss it all away. Your time is tick-tick-ticking away.
1. A Boy in a Stitch

The Reincarnate

Chapter 1: A Boy in a Stitch

* * *

The fire dwindled down to embers and it was starting to get darker in the Emptiness. The four stitchpunks sat cross-legged across from each other and discussed their memories of their friends. Well, two of them did anyway. The rain had died down hours ago and they had left their shelter, a small tire, to set up a fire. The clouds were rolling swiftly across the sky, which seemed too big and too ominous to be real. Thunder boomed in the distance, warning them that the previous shower wasn't the last and certainly not the fiercest. Black clouds faintly glowed with the promise of something terrifying. The palest member of the group glanced at the sky worriedly. It was not her nature to feel apprehensive, but she felt some strange pull at the mechanical workings in her chest with every boom of the thunder. The twins were fidgety, jumping at every noise that the sky emitted and her male companion was warming his hands by the remains of the fire. They were all very afraid, and with good reason, but she was not supposed to be. She was the warrior, the strength of the group, and she could not have any weaknesses. The sky seemed to mock her with every second that passed, knowing that it was beginning to get to her.

"It's going to get pretty bad," She mentioned, hoping to hide the quiver in her voice.

"I know, 7," He shuddered, another boom of thunder peeled through the atmosphere.

The twins ran over to 7 and ducked between her and 9, shaking and shutting their optics tightly. She wrapped her arm around them to help comfort them as best she could. The thunder was getting louder and the lighting was getting more frequent. The wind was beginning to pick up, ruining any chance of regaining the fire they huddled around. One particular clash of thunder was enough to shake the very ground they sat on, and it shook 7 to her feet.

"We need to find shelter," 7 said, picking up her skullmet and her spear while glancing at their surroundings. Their previous shelter would not suffice for a storm of this magnitude.

9 whispered something inaudibly.

"Huh?"

"Back to the source," He repeated, louder as the revelation hit him. "We can go back to where I was born...where we were born. We'll be safe there. I mean, I was safe there before, right?"

"Yeah…" 7 watched him as his face grew with a strange sort of excitement. He stood, glancing at her sideways, before beckoning her to follow as he jogged away. He loved being in that room, the silence hinting at powerful emotions from long ago.

"9, wait!"

She grabbed the twins' hands and took off after him, grumbling at his impulsive nature and the storm the bellowed above.

"Was that really necessary?!" 7 yelled as they came to a halt outside of a tall, decrepit building.

The first floor was completely gone, save the stairway and a few supporting beams. The windows had been busted out, the wood was twisting, and the shingles were peeling off the hole-ridden roof. A smile crossed his face as he headed towards the stairs swiftly. 3 and 4 left their guardian's side to follow 9, their optics clicking away at the structure of the building and any interesting debris. 7, however, was a little more hesitant. She noticed the cracking steps and the groaning of the floorboards as she followed a few feet behind them, carefully trekking up the stairs with the grace of a cat.

Making their way to the peak of the stairs, they beheld a floor strewn with papers and books and various scientific instruments. The paint on the walls was peeling and twisting in the breeze that was created by the open window. A body lay in the floor to their left near a chair, and an open wooden box lay discarded near the body's hand. 3 and 4 ran around the room exploring, 7 stood contemplating her surroundings with a nervous composure, and 9 dug through the random piles of junk in search of anything that would be useful, or at least anything that would entertain them for the duration of the storm. 7 sat down on the floor in the middle of the room and stared at the body before her. She knew him, she remembered him. He was the one that gave them life.

* * *

The sky was an effortless light blue, providing the perfect backdrop for the purity of the white clouds as they transformed from one shape to another and drifted away slowly. The blue was so complete, so mesmerizing, that one felt the urge to reach out and grab a piece, so that one could own that peace and that purity forever. Alarming shades of blue were punctured and deflated by the city's skyline, a dark row of industrial, grungy buildings. It seemed to stretch from one end of the horizon to the other, swallowing the inhabitants of the city so completely that even if everyone had their own little piece of the sky, it would not be enough to keep the feelings of lifelessness and despair away. She laid back, the hot shingles slightly searing the skin on her back through the fabric of her shirt. Of course, there was always the Chancellor. He promised them freedom and security and, if it were possible, their very own piece of sky. Giving the people these promises did not mean he intended to keep them. Everyone talked about how the Chancellor would improve and protect the country with him preaching change for the better.

A boom and a clatter from below startled her to her feet. There was shouting and then more clattering, followed by even more shouting and the screeching of tires. The girl peaked over the orifice of the roof to gaze at the crowded streets below, ready for mobility. The crowd had parted right down the center of the center of the sidewalk, where a group of military police were stumbling over vendors and other obstacles in pursuit of a very naïve-looking young man. She crouched out of sight as the police ran noisily by and stared after the young man with pity. The government was paranoid now more than ever, and with good reason to be. After all, there _were_ people like her running around. They could never be too careful. She snickered to herself, and then contemplated the face of the young man. He had dark hair and bright eyes, and looked thoroughly confused as to why the military was chasing him. His naiveté practically screamed that whatever it was he had done had not warranted the pursuit, and as she reflected upon him, it crossed her mind more persistently that she should help him. They would be angry, furious even, but she felt the need to defend him. She hurried over to the corner of the roof and catapulted into the alley below.

----

His ears pounded with every pump of his arms and with his every smacking footstep on the concrete. His legs and eyes burned but he pushed himself further and further as the thought of being captured seeped through his mind. Time had lost all grip on him, and he had no idea how long he had been running. He rounded a corner and propelled himself faster towards his target – an alley that was meters ahead and on his right. He ran a lot faster than they did, a lot faster than he gave himself credit for, and he was definitely several meters ahead of them. If he could only get to the alley before they came around that corner! With a final stride and a glance backwards, he flung himself into the entrance of the alley and collided roughly with the ground, rolling into the darkness. He lay flat on his stomach for a moment as he realized that he had made it, but also that the shouts were coming closer. He knew he should get up, with only about half a minute left before he was found, but his legs and arms could not find the energy, and the cool cement was soothing to his feverish forehead.

"So you're gonna give up _now_?" A female voice rhetorically asked in a hurried tone, sending a jolt of lightning through his body. He instantly jumped to his feet. "C'mon!"

The hooded figure (apparently the voice belonged to it) grabbed his wrist, with a gasp of protest from him, and pulled him behind a nearby dumpster just as the police surged by the small rectangle of light that was the entrance. They waited a moment to verify that the coast was clear. The figure pushed him up the fire escape and he, still electrified by the shock, went with the movements, not slowing down to wait for his savior and not knowing where he was headed. He kept climbing until he reached the end of the zigzagging stairs and fell to his knees. His newly found companion kept up gracefully, and climbed over the edge of the roof to stand beside him, leaning against a ventilation unit. He inhaled heavily for what seemed like hours, trying to get the air back into his winded lungs. The building they were on top of was a lot taller than it looked. Neither made an attempt at conversation until they heard the angry voices of his pursuers getting fainter and fainter as it dissipated into the distance.

Finally, the same voice spoke again. "Would you mind telling me what you thought you were doing back there?"

The young man stopped panting for two beats, controlling his respiration the best he could before standing to face the figure.

"I was running," he offered weakly.

"I'll say," The soft voice said sarcastically. The only visible part of the face, the mouth, smirked.

"Okay, I had it under control before you showed up," He stood to his full height, which wasn't very impressive, he decided, and sunk back down to his original composure. "Who are you anyways?"

The figure, which hadn't been moving much during their short conversation to begin with, seemed to become very still. Pale arms reached up to the hood and gripped it on either side, before tugging it back from the face. Dirty blonde hair spilled down the girl's shoulders in soft curls, most of the tresses pinned back from the face. The pale face, which was framed by shorter strands of hair, had big, bright blue eyes hiding behind all that hair. Her lips were small and slender and pink, and her nose was small and round. Feathers dangled from the piercing in her ears. Her body was lithe and symmetrical, and he noticed that her arms, which any other person would hold out away from their body, were parallel to the curve of her waist. She wasn't feminine in the typical sense, but that was the very nature of her beauty. Her cheeks seemed pink with embarrassment as he scrutinized her. She could tell by his expression that she had avoided telling him her name, for which she was grateful, but his quiet observations were making her uncomfortable.

"Who are you?" She asked boldly, eager to shift the attention onto him.

He suddenly found the tops of her shoes to be very interesting, and after a moment of silence, she spoke again.

"What did you do?" She gestured down to the streets where his pursuit had taken place.

His troubled eyes crossed, back and forth, back and forth, until he stopped, thinking hard and looking up at her. "I…don't know."

He didn't seem to know much. If he didn't even know who he was... Suddenly, she thought of something. They will really hate me, but, she thought, I never got along with them anyways. She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the edge of the building.

"What're you doing?" He gripped his own hand tightly, trying to wrestle it from her. "Where are we going?"

She flipped the hood back over her head with her free hand, grinning eerily and ambiguously. "Just follow me."

Her tone told him that he was not going to get away from her. Oddly enough, he didn't _want_ to get away from her. His curiosity was his most prominent characteristic. So he silently followed her down the zigzagging stairs into the darkness below.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, first of all, I want to apologize if anyone has done anything similar to this before. I had this idea a while back and my laptop died so I could not upload it. But I have a Toshiba now, and it makes me very happy : ) Secondly, I just want to throw it out there that I am not completely aware of what time period the War took place. It seems to be after WW1, but I'm going to stick with the parallel universe theory and say that it doe not matter because it isn't our universe. Lastly, please review! Criticism is welcome, and encouraged!**


	2. Fray

The Reincarnate

Chapter 2: Fray

* * *

Below the city streets in a dilapidated maintenance tunnel, the boy and girl trudged on in search of something that the girl would not mention. The tunnel was pitch black save for the small circle of yellow light created by a lantern that they had found on the streets. He held the light out in front of his chest, occasionally switching arms. She led them through turn after turn, with her staff defensively pointed out towards the void in front of them, until he was certain that they were just going in circles. The light bounced off her hair, making it golden and casting a halo of radiance around her. She remained silent except for her one-worded directions. It was shocking to her that this stranger so cooperatively complied, but in retrospect his inquisitive nature seemed to justify his every action. He watched her in his peripheral vision, studying her visage and vaguely thinking that it would be nice to spend a normal day with her, and enjoy small talk conversations and other little things. They certainly weren't under the appropriate circumstances for that, but he had to try anything to break the thick tension surrounding them.

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere safe." Sensing that she was not going to say anymore about their destination, he tried another direction.

"So, uh…" He searched, suddenly at a loss for words and settling for the first thing that came to mind. "Nice weather we're having, huh?"

She stopped, stared at him quizzically, then began walking again. But the boy was not about to give up so easily.

"I've always appreciated rainy days, myself, but-"

"Have you ever played the quiet game?" She stared at him hard not, forcing a meager expression onto his face. His smirked as best he could under the pressure of her gaze. She wanted to play a game? At a time like this?

"I love games."

She didn't reply, and kept moving forward, eyes trained on the darkness in front of them. The boy felt at the wall next to him, kicked a rock across the floor, swung the lantern back and forth.

"So, anyways. I wanted to ask you back there. Why did you-"

"You've never played the quiet game?" She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, paused for a beat, then continued, allowing herself to say more than she originally intended. "We're not even supposed to exist. And since you became involved, nothing's going to ever be the same again. For anyone."

As he digested this information, he suddenly wished that he hadn't wanted to know what was going on so badly. His mind jumped to conclusions, varying from an underground chain of rebel groups that were planning on overthrowing the government to a secret branch of the government that was posing as an underground chain of rebels and was using this disguise to take over the world. No matter which end of the spectrum his mind wandered to, it still made his head hurt.

"Don't worry, we're not involved with the government at all," She stated, seeing where his mind had taken him. She changed her tone. "Or maybe that is reason to worry."

They continued walking in silence, their brains mulling over the short, sharp conversation they just had. Eventually, the boy relaxed, but the girl, who was always alert, never did.

After nearly forty minutes of leading him blindly in the darkness, she abruptly froze and placed her palm on the wall to the left of her. She felt around for a moment, then paused and flexed her hand. A mechanical clicking issued from deep within the wall. Suddenly the wall split in half, leaving an opening that was big enough for somebody twice their size. She placed her staff back in its holster on her back, then glanced at his astounded expression and laughed inwardly, remembering the first time she had arrived at this secret passageway.

Down another dark tunnel, they came to a normal, beaten-looking door. She rapped her knuckles on the door three times and no sooner had her hand left the surface, it cracked open slowly. A large, dimly lit room unfolded before them, the walls lined with tables and clutter. From what the stranger could grasp of this room, as the boundaries were uncertain in spots, was that it was a large dome. There was a homey feeling about the chamber, and he instantly felt a warmth that he couldn't explain. There were several doorways leading to rooms that were obscured in shadows. Before he could continue observing, someone darted towards the girl from the darkness.

"Seven!" The young man cried, latching his arms around her shoulders and burying his face in her hair. Then, a muffled, "So glad you came back…"

She was hesitant, at first, like she wasn't sure what to do, but familiarity must've returned because she returned his embrace with one of her own. They held each other for a moment, silently reveling in the presence of one another, until the newcomer, who was growing increasingly awkward with each second, cleared his throat. The newly dubbed "Seven" released her grip, and smiled sheepishly, turning to face the newcomer and revealing a partial glimpse of her partner's face. The confused young man caught sight of one eye, a bright emerald, before Seven turned back to her mate.

"I always come back."

Suddenly a loud, male voice resonated from the rear of the room. The acoustics of this room made the voice rumble, and the man who had embraced Seven quickly ran back into the shadows where he had come from. Before he could even think of asking her who the voice belonged to, Seven spun around, smacked the lantern out of his hand swiftly, and shouldered him out the door in one motion. He fell onto the ground, into the darkness and away from the warmth he had previously felt. He began to protest but one look at her silenced him. She had visibly stiffened, her face was curled into a scowl, and her hands had tightened into fists. She looked truly terrifying.

"Stay," she glanced over her shoulder then back at him. "It won't be long, I promise."

And she shut the door with a thud, leaving him engulfed in darkness.

* * *

Seven turned to face the presently disembodied voice. It had gotten darker in the room, she realized, and her eyes had no time to readjust as she heard two sets of footsteps heading towards her; a slow, heavier set that approached her front directly in front, and a quicker, more frenzied set that approached somewhere to her left. The frenzied steps were more familiar. They stopped abruptly and Seven felt the hair on her arms and neck stand up. She jumped and realized that it was only her mate, reaching out to her for protection wordlessly. Nobody really spoke nowadays. Something about their current predicament had muted them all into some sort of silent mourning. She was sure that she had found something, or someone, rather, that would change everything for them all. She stepped defensively in front of her partner as the voice approached them, quieter this time, in a scolding manner.

"Decided to come back, have we?" An older man stepped into the dim circle of light. He held his head high as he straightened his headdress, which was covering a balding head, and wrung his hands together tightly. A long red cape was draped across his back, fastened at his neck with a small ruby.　His brows furrowed as he stared down at the two. He glanced at the boy. "Of course, you would never leave him…?"

She could sense his eyes on her immediately, probing her countenance for any indication on whether or not this was true. Seven hated that One had this power over her companions. "Well, maybe I wouldn't if I were more welcome here."

"If you would listen to your leader then we wouldn't be having this disagreement now would we?" He smirked angrily, satisfied as he noticed the reaction his words were having.

"I do listen to my leader and you're not him! You're only second in command!" Her voice rose and her partner shrank away from her anger, as did One.

Red flared up in his cheeks and, angry and slightly embarrassed, he clenched his fists tightly. He mumbled something inaudibly. Then, "Every single one of you! It has to stop!"

A calm came over her as she leveled her voice to inquire, "What?"

"This. This constant exploring that you do!" He became even more flustered at the fact that she didn't comprehend what he was referring to.

"You know damn well I can handle myself!" She flinched angrily, and the young man behind her shrank away momentarily.

"You are so naïve," One stated in a controlled tone. "I was speaking of issues of a much grander scale."

"Such as? Please enlighten me. You have my full attention," Seven spat.

"Such as this suicide mission that we're all on, your constant exploring, the brainwashing, and especially," He gestured towards the two harshly, "This relationship!"

Her partner hid behind her even more at this motion, afraid to get caught up in the middle like he always seemed to do. But he had to be there for Seven, although he doubted she needed his support. He remained silent mostly, learning quickly that it was best to stay out of the arguments between One and Seven.

The fire in her eyes seemed to extinguish the fire in his. He lowered his voice swiftly. "It will be the end of us all."

The dam that contained Seven's control burst open, and she lunged at One, tackling him, her hands clutching at his throat violently. He fell to the ground, gasping for air and reaching towards his scepter, which had fallen to the ground several feet away. She tightened her hands just enough to where she was certain she wouldn't kill him, but just enough to make him uncomfortable, when she decided to speak.

"You might intimidate everyone else here. You might have control over them. But not me." She tightened her grip momentarily. "It would be wise to remember that."

At that moment, two hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away, leaving One sucking in air and slightly irritated. The hands spun her around and pinned her to the wall gently. The weary face of her father figure gazed at her with understanding and disappointment, his brown eyes questioning but knowing. Seven hated to disappoint him. Two was the most respected person in the group, and to know that he respected you in return was a gratifying feeling. But she had let him down, and all because she let her anger get the best of her. She noticed One stand up behind them and dust his shirt off.

"I will be sure to inform him of this insubordination," He smirked, and quickly retreated in the opposite direction.

As soon as he was sure One had left the room, Two let her go, shaking his head. "You should know better than to let him get under your skin." He began in a tired voice.

"I apologize," She hung her head. "I didn't realize we were being that loud."

"You weren't," Two glanced at Seven's partner, who smirked apologetically at her, who hated when he retrieved help at the most inopportune times. "Not really."

She sighed. It was all for the best anyways. If they hadn't intervened, her anger might've swayed her to do some unspeakable things, and she certainly did not want to be condemned for something as petty as the outcome of an argument. Seven smiled at Two, grateful that he had pulled her away when he had. She suddenly remembered the newcomer and realized that she needed to blow off some steam before she took on the weighty task of introducing him to any of them. After being through this routine numerous times, Two led her away to the training room, which was specifically designed with Seven in mind, to encourage her abilities.

Seven's partner was left in the main room alone, quietly reflecting on what had happened. He too had remembered the traveler that Seven had brought with her, and slowly edged towards the door.

* * *

A sliver of lighter darkness crept to him from his right. Shutting his eyes tightly to block out the brighter shade of darkness, his hand flew up in front of his face instinctively. If whoever came through that door wasn't Seven, then he was in trouble. He began forming a plan of escape in his mind. Adrenaline pumped through his legs, and his mind went into fight-or-flight mode. A light pressure rested on his shoulder and he blinked suddenly, jumping back against the wall and staring hard in the dimness. He saw the faint silhouette of a familiar figure; it was the same silhouette from the room he had previously been ousted from. The silhouette had jumped back at his reaction and slouched inwardly, as if debating whether or not to just retreat back into the safety of the big room. The stranger stood, not afraid so much as anxious of what was to come. He patiently waited for a verdict from this mysterious person who obviously had other things on his mind. And at the same time, he felt that his arrival here was the cause of something significant, and something negative. A sound ricocheted across the room behind him, and he spun around, light spilling over the right side of his face and revealing a brilliant blue eye. Wait…As some strange sense of fear gripped him, he realized that this person standing in the doorway wasn't the same person that he had seen before.

And before the vagrant could do anything to react, the mysterious person grabbed his wrist and tugged him into the giant room roughly.

* * *

**Author's Note: So, I'm deciding to go a different direction with the names of the chapters and the title of the story...sorta. Originally, I was gonna name each chapter with a corresponding song title, and they were all gonna be from one album. You get extra points if you can take a wild guess at which album I was gonna use. And double extra points if you caught the reference to a certain movie. :] I'm trying to work on building suspense, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm doing a good job. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. I will update as soon as I can, assuming I haven't been consumed by my homework. :/**

Juul - The whole rhyming thing is somethign I can never get the hang of, so no song writing for me. Lol, it would end up sounding like some other song or something. I wish I could take a creative writing class with Dr. Clemens. Actually, I just wish he was still my English professor. The one I have now sucks.

Westhaven 18 - No problem. I shall gladly continue. :] Glad you like it.

Masako Moonshade - Well I hope that answered your question. Or, maybe it confused you even more. I don't know, hehe.


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